Note: This story was updated on July 6 to clarify the per capita cost metric used in the survey.
A recent survey by the personal finance company WalletHub ranked Chattanooga as the second worst run city in the United States out of 149 assessed — beating out only San Francisco.
Chattanooga edged out New York City, which was ranked third worst.
“Even during less difficult times, running a city is a tall order,” Adam McCann, financial writer at WalletHub, wrote in the June 20 article. “The larger the city, the more complex it becomes to manage. In addition to representing the residents, local leaders must balance the public’s diverse interests with the city’s limited resources. That often means not everyone’s needs can or will be met.”
WalletHub sought to measure the effectiveness of local leadership by comparing the quality of services residents receive to the cost of providing local services. The list includes the 149 most populated cities for which there is data available.